Orange County

As pandemic shutdowns intensify, more than a third of jobs in three California industries that rely on events — sports, performing arts and catering — have already disappeared. And they’ve been slower to recover than the state workforce as a whole.

California’s dancers, musicians and other performers have lost their audience to a pandemic. Some may never return to the stage even when the patrons are back. Marica Kumayama Petrey had put eight months of pre-production work into the live debut for her first album with a new pop/rock band, Girl Swallows Nightingale, planned for March. […]

California voters are as diverse as its geography, from mountain ranges to valley farmland to forests and beaches. So a look at official voting results released this month shows notable differences in who turned out, how we voted, and where we voted. More than half of California’s record 17.8 million ballots cast came from just […]

California’s decision to mail a ballot to every registered voter resulted in record ballots cast in the general election — but it was poor and diverse communities that fueled the increases.

CalMatters talked to volunteer poll workers and full-time staff in the aftermath of November’s contentious election to see how their work differed from past elections. Election staff Tiffany Nevarez, Enedina Chhim and Roxana Castro say they enjoyed problem-solving their way past this year’s hurdles in Orange County.

Pet videos populate Facebook all the time, but one posted during this frenzied election season stood out: A service dog named Maggie Magoo had voted by mail in Santa Cruz, its owner said. Not just that, the owner claimed Maggie was registered to vote using her microchip number as a social security number.  The story, […]

They’re everywhere. They last forever. They’re dangerous. They’re expensive to remove. And many Californians don’t even know they’re drinking them.

Two years ago, Democratic newcomers across the state were swept into Congress atop a frothing “blue wave” of anti-Trump fervor — a result that only became apparent late in the vote count. This year’s election has been playing out a little like 2018 in reverse.  This time the Democrats led early on, only to see their […]

A study in Orange County reveals a higher prevalence of COVID-19 in minority communities and shows the disparities in health care.

Once a bastion of California Republicanism, Orange County is now purple with a stubborn conservative streak.